Workshop Pieces Needed!

Hi again, everyone,

If you are in E2H or E3H, now is the time to assess your progress in Writing Workshop. For one thing, if you are a junior, your countdown calendar reads 35 days. But, more pressing, there is a contest deadline coming up next week and I'd like to find out what you have that I should consider for possible submission.

The contest is the Best of Illinois Prose and Poetry contest, sponsored annually by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English. It's a cool contest and we usually have several winners, some of whom take First Place awards and get their pieces published. I will select the best of those pieces that are in great shape by this time, whether they are in final shape or not, but I do have a limit on how many pieces I can submit.

Of course, most of the entries usually come from my Creative Writing class, both because they are more experienced and because they are finished. But last year (for example) 1/3 of the poems and 2/5 of the stories came from juniors and sophomores, and I had a winner in each of those classes (including a First!). So I need to know what you've got. And, more importantly, so do you.

Therefore, your homework this weekend in Writing Workshop is this:

Assess your Portfolio Progress. If you are honest with yourself, just how close are you? When I ask the juniors "Do you know where your portfolio is?" what is the real answer? How many pieces are really nearing fruition? How many need a whole lot of work? And do you have any--especially poems of 40 lines or less or stories of 1000 words or less--that are sufficiently finished that I might consider them? (Consider this: the First Place winner last year was a sophomore whose piece changed dramatically--even its title--by the time she put it into her portfolio and by the time it appeared in Young Idea. So your piece does not need to be done...whatever that means.)

By Monday, I want you to send me the following at my groupwise address:

• a current draft of each piece that you consider a potential portfolio entry
• a list of those pieces with commentary about what needs to be done to each
• an addendum to that list stating what is still completely missing.
  
  Oh yes, folks. It's Party Time!
  
  And don't forget...
  
• E2H: Read Death of a Salesman Act 1 by Wednesday. RW Mon, WW Tues; wikicab!
• E3H: 3/4 discussions Mon, RW Tues, WW Wed; annotations Tues; wikicab!
• Drama: work on boards! You have your own daily post and three assignment threads.